


Awkward Romance

by holmes221b



Series: Tathas Tabris, Grey Warden [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Child Death, F/M, Second-Hand Embarrassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6414310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holmes221b/pseuds/holmes221b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They already talk about us like we're a couple, this isn't going to give them anything new to talk about."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awkward Romance

**Author's Note:**

> Partially inspired by my own experience with learning prayers in school as a child (except I don't have the excuse of being exposed to constant poverty and death like Tathas)

Tathas reached out and tapped Alistair on the arm to draw his attention.

He slowed don so that they could talk while walking.

"Yes?" he inquired.

"I didn't mean to push last night, when I asked if you wanted to join me in my tent," Tathas apologized.

"What did you mean then?"

"I wanted to make you blush," the elven warden admitted, "You're really cute when you blush."

"There are other ways of doing that," Alistair observed, "other ways than repeatedly propositioning me."

"Prop-po-what?" Tathas asked, thrown off by the strange word.

"Sorry," Alistair apologized, "I mean 'asking if I'm interested in having sex loud enough for everyone in camp to hear'."

"They already talk about like we're a couple, this isn't going to give them anything new to talk about," Tathas remarked, "if that's what you're concerned about."

"My concern is more with, uh, other matters," Alistair reassured her. Maker, he could feel his ears starting to burn.

"Maker, even your _ears_ blush," Tathas observed loudly, "Take me now."

"Uh..." Alistair began to say, but he couldn't think of anything sensible to say.

"It's a--what's it called--a figure of speech," Tathas was quick to assure him.

"I've never heard it used to mean anything other than a request for sex," Alistair objected.

"You don't know my cousin Shianni," Tathas pointed out with a grin. She was on firmer ground with explaining what she'd meant now.

"True," Alistair agreed, "She used this phrase a lot then?"

"Not really, but when she did, she never used it as a request for sex."

"What did she use it for then?"

"It's a--a reference to a prayer we were taught as children by the chantry priests who visited the Alienage," Tathas explained, "It was a prayer asking the Maker to watch over us as we slept at night. At one point in the prayer, it goes: 'and if I should not see the dawn, please take me quickly to Your side.'"

"I can see why you would fixate on that," Alistair injected, "Life in an elven alienage...the stories I heard from--Alim, I think his name was--when he was drunk enough to be willing to talk about his own life before joining the Wardens."

"Alim?" Tathas asked.

"I think that was his name," Alistair repeated, before answering Tathas' query, "He was a Warden from an alienage in Orlais," Alistair explained, "I don't remember which city, if he even ever said."

"Too bad I never got to meet him, it would have been nice to not be alone as a Grey Warden," Tathas said aloud.

Alistair gave her a confused, slightly hurt look.

"I mean, as an elven Warden," Tathas clarified, "You don't really know whether an elf would experience the Joining differently from a human, I would expect."

Alistair nodded.

"You do have a point there," he agreed.

"And that unknown scares me," Tathas admitted.

"I wish I could do something about that," Alistair replied.

"But you can't," Tathas pointed out bluntly.

"I can't do anything to prepare you, but I can make sure to be there to support you," Alistair replied, ignoring Tathas, "I'm really good at listening."

"I'll keep that in mind when I need someone to listen to about my woes about being a Grey Warden," Tathas assured him.


End file.
